Saturday, October 09, 2010

dailymail - Common frog populations have seen numbers tumble by more than 80 per cent in the face of a virus spreading through the UK, scientists warned today.

Populations infected with the disease Ranavirus, which is thought to be relatively new to the UK, suffered an average 81 per cent decrease in adult frogs over a 12-year period.

Using data collected from the public by the frog mortality project and charity Froglife, the research from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) showed long-term declines in numbers in the face of the virus.

The study also found sudden mass die-offs of frogs, which the disease is known to cause.

But the research, which was published in the ZSL journal Animal Conservation, found that while some populations of frogs suffered from infection year-on-year, others bounced back from mass mortality events.

The research suggests some frogs may be immune to infection by the virus, the scientists said.

Dr Amber Teacher, lead author of the study from ZSL, said: 'Our findings show that Ranavirus not only causes one-off mass mortality events, but it is also responsible for long-term population declines.

'We need to understand more about this virus if we are to minimise the serious threat that it poses to our native amphibians.'

The origins of non-native disease, which causes a range of symptoms in common frogs including skin ulceration and haemorrhaging of internal organs, are unknown but is thought to be relatively new to the UK and is closely related to viruses found in North American amphibians.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the disease was associated with the south-east of England but in recent years new pockets of virus have turned up in Lancashire, Yorkshire and along the south coast.

The study's co-author Dr Trent Garner, from ZSL, said: 'It is very difficult to treat wildlife diseases and so the mystery that we desperately need to solve is how the disease spreads.

'Understanding more about the ecology of the disease will allow us to offer advice to the public on how to limit the spread of infection, which could also prevent the movement of other frog diseases in the future.'

Lucy Benyon, of Froglife, said the discovery of populations which seemed to have some form of immunity to the virus was good news.

She said: 'The discovery of persistent populations in the face of disease emergence is very encouraging and offers hope for the long-term future of this species.

'However, we still need regular information from the public on what is happening in their ponds to continue this essential research.'

I honestly don't know where to begin here. Putting this up is a little scary for me, because all this stuff really happened. But it's been close to 5 years, I'm getting older and it's time to come forward with my story. Let me also say I'd much rather talk to someone about this than type it all out, but I'll do my best. On Saturday May 27th 2006 my girlfriend was away for the day, and I had our apartment to myself. I spent some time playing a new videogame, and had a long phone conversation with my mom. It was probably the deepest conversation we ever had, and she told me a story about my birth. I knew we were both sick when I was born and that she had to have an emergency c section, but apparantly her heart stopped for 45 seconds while under. When she woke up to my father holding a newborn me, all she could do was tell him about the dream she had. She was aboard a flying saucer with a higher power, or jesus, looking for others. But for some reason no one else was ready, or able to board with them. This kinda blew me away, she hesitated my whole life to tell me this because of my profound intrest in the subject. OK so we finish up the conversation, it's 7:20 PM and I try to go back to my new game. But instead I put down the controller, got up and looked out the window of my 7th floor apt. and see this white egg shaped god-knows-what right out there. It was about the size of a minivan, maby a small bus and it was so close I could have hit it with a rock. It immediately began moving away very quickly and I noticed two black dots, one on either side of it.

They started swirling around the egg and would 'splash' in and out of it, causing it to shimmer black and white so fast it looked silver. It looked kinda like a molecule. OK now here's where it gets tough.... I only saw it up close for maby 10 seconds, it flew away pretty fast. But I kept my eye on it and could still see it as a black speck against the clear sky for a good 2 mins. Then it started blinking out, and i said outloud "No! Come back" and waved it back and this black speck zapped me. It felt like I jumped into ice water and had my brain ripped in half. The sky turned a bright purple, I wanna say ultra-violet and against it were hundreds of different sized transparant white circles, or 'orbs'. Like a polka-dot sky. It brought me to my knees and I urinated myself. OK here's the part that really scares me, I wouldn't bother coming forward if it weren't for this. When i finally managed to shake it off I heard what sounded like chaos outside- all the car alarms in the whole parking lot, several sirens and what sounded like a fire engine, all blaring loudly for 30 maby 45 seconds. The clock on my cable box said 7:23.

First thing I did was try to call my mom back but the phone was dead for 10 minutes or so. At her advice about an hour later I called the local fire dept. inquiring about the alarms but got some BS answer- a "system alarm test". Also I found some neighbors who heard everything at that precise time, but no one saw anything. I had several other related paranormal experiences that summer, but I'm done typing about this. As i re-read this I realise there's several details I'm leaving out, but I'll always remember that day quite well. I feel MUFON is a trusted orginization so please feel free to contact me if you'd like to know more. Thank You.

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Pregnant Blue Whale Found Dead in Bay Area Was Hit by Ship

petethomasoutdoors - The 85-foot pregnant blue whale that washed ashore near her fetus during the weekend at Bean Hollow State Beach south of San Francisco had suffered "internal injuries consistent with a ship strike," said Joe Cordaro, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

A necropsy team discovered signs of hemorrhaging in the skeletal muscle and along the right lateral abdomen, and some fractured vertebrae. That there had been hemorrhaging implies that the whale was alive when it was struck.

This brings to three the number of blue whales known to have been hit by vessels off California this year. In August a blue whale washed ashore at San Miguel Island with broken bones and other wounds consistent with a ship strike.

Earlier in the summer, the captain of a Monterey commercial whale-watching boat reported hitting a blue whale that he said had surfaced in front of the boat. The captain said he saw no evidence that the whale had been injured.

About 2,000 blue whales utilize California waters each summer. They're part of a worldwide population of about 10,000. Blue whales are an endangered species.

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Lead Poisoning Kills 400 Children in Nigeria

AP - Lead poisoning has killed more than 400 children under five in the past six months in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara, an international humanitarian group said Tuesday.

"Based on record of fatalities from lead poisoning, more than 400 children have died in the last six months," said El-Shafii Muhammad Ahmad, project director for Medecines Sans Frontieres (MSF).

"But we in MSF believe the figure is much more than that," he told AFP on the phone from Zamfara state.

A lead poisoning epidemic linked to illegal gold mining hit the predominantly Muslim state at the start of the year.

The intoxications were caused by the illegal extraction of ore by villagers, who would transport crushed rock home from the mines to extract the gold.

The soil containing lead deposits would then be haphazardly disposed of, exposing children to inhalation or ingestion.

Ahmad said reports of 400 deaths "is an underestimation because many lead-related deaths are never reported and in many cases, these communities attribute them to other factors or deny them altogether."

He said local communities mainly concealed or denied the fatalities and illnesses from lead poisoning for fear that authorities will ban their mining activities, he added.

Illicit gold mining is more lucrative than agriculture for the impoverished farmers.

A United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report after a two-week study by a four-man team of experts said that lead poisoning was spreading in mining communities in northwestern Zamfara.

The report was released late Monday.

The study focussed on ground water pollution in the contaminated areas of the state.

Two weeks ago, the UN's Organisation for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in Geneva that more than 200 children were thought to have died in Nigeria out of an estimated 18,000 people affected by lead poisoning from the illicit gold mining.

Friday, October 08, 2010

MUFON CMS - Since October 4, 2010 - Texas Gulf: 4 October – On a fishing trip with my younger brother, we drive to Port Aransas, Texas at 9PM Monday night from San Antonio, Texas. On the drive via Interstate 37 south, I did noticed a blue/white/red light up at about 30 degrees from the highway flying ahead of us at about 20,000 feet. Having just finished a previous UFO investigation the week prior, I took this light as an aircraft flying to Corpus Christi so I ignore it. After taking the Port Aransas car ferry about 12:30AM, 5 October, we park our SUV passed the end of the paved road of East Cotter Ave were it becomes the entrance to Nueces Country Park. We park our SUV tail end right next to southwest side of the waterway pass as marked on figure 1.

5 October – Approximately at 1:30AM we finish setting up camp and go to bed. One hour later I wake up for no apparent reason, I decide to step outside of the SUV to have a smoke. My brother has been sick so any noise or movement did not wake him. The gulf breeze was blowing to the northwest so I moved to the north side of the SUV near the front passenger seat. The sky was partly cloudy with the clouds moving also to the northwest from the southeast at a very slow rate.

2:30AM – At an angle up from the horizon about 60 degrees facing northeast, I see what looked like a fast (grey in color) shadow move just above the clouds over my left shoulders into another cloud. Thinking this was either a large bird or my tired eyes playing tricks, I ignore it.

2:45AM – After finishing my smoke, I make my way around to the passenger side of the SUV and I am now facing southwest parallel with the nose of the SUV. I happen to look up at three very large clouds and see once again this huge grey shadow move from the top of one cloud on my right to the next cloud to the left. I open the SUV’s driver door and start to reach for the camera under the seat. As I am reaching for the camera (I am totally blown away on seeing this) a massive Super-ship quickly moves from the middle cloud to the third cloud on the far left, see Figure 1. Wishing this would be just a peaceful fishing trip, I start memorizing eye-witness reporting attention-to-detail facts. I quickly raise my right hand and simulate the shape, color, direction, size, speed and duration of the UFO event. Using my outreach right hand (about 6 inch long at 20 inches away from my eyes) and estimating the lower end of moving clouds to be 20,000 to 25,000, I measure this Super-ship to be 7,500 feet long, 3,750 feet wide, and 1,250 in height. The overall shape (note, it move so fast I did not see the front very well) resembles a between an Archery 3 blade Broad Head Arrow Tip crossed with a Star War’s Imperial Battleship (see fig 2). At the very back of the ship looked like two very large dome (think tops of football field like the Metro Dome in Minneapolis). This machine looked extremely old. Along the sides of the ship were two rolls of blocks that resemble the tops of old castle walls. Absolutely an unpractical design for aerodynamics and it was the dullest concrete grey in color. In fact, it looked like it was made of concrete with no smooth surface, no windows, and absolutely no sound. It flew from cloud to cloud as if was trying to hide. In the open between the clouds it would almost fade in with the stars above but as soon as the ship jumped near to the top of next cloud, it would fade back into view, it is possible that the chemical composition of the earth’s cloud may have an undesirable effect of the Super-ship’s ability to stay invisible (think sun hitting falling rain to make a rainbow). The second direction it moved was about a mile west, 85 degrees up of my location and jumped to the last large cloud at about 75 degrees southwest at a speed I estimate to be 5 times a CRJ-700's 860km/h (535 miles per hour) or 2,600 miles per hour or I would estimate it jumped 45 miles in ¾ of a second.

2:50AM – With the interior light of the USV off and with the driver’s door open, I finally find my camera. I turn my body back out to look southeast and I see a white/blue round probe/or a decoy (fig 2) with a little red blinking light on top of it. This UFO drop down from a huge cloud father south from where I saw the Super-ship last. This probe is hovering just below the cloud at about 20,000 feet and about 60 miles from me. It is blinking with an unrecognizable rhythm. Note: the following morning at 7AM I noted 5 to 6 Oil Tankers moored between me and the hovering probe, if a crew member was up between 2 and 3 AM working the oil transfer rig that is about 20 miles out from Port Aransas, they should have seen all of this.

2:55AM – Seeing the probe blinking and changing color from white to blue with a smaller un-rhythm red blinking light on the top of it, I turn on my 1 million candle watt power floodlight and flash three quick flashes to it as this pratice has been advised/tried by the local San Antonio, Texas MUFON members when they are trying to make contact in our local UFO hotspots. As soon as I flashed the last of the three flashes, the probe completely vanished from sight.

2:56AM - Within a minutes, and what I can describe as my first USO (Unidentified Submerged Object) encounter, a tall (maybe 100 feet in height) super bright white double cross (fig 2) USO, rises out of the ocean at about 25 miles due southeast of me in line with the far right oil tanker. This new structure is completely lid up. It stays right on top of the water and I start filming it (see attached film). At the beginning of the film, I try to get a reference by using the stationary oil tankers, and then pan the camera to the right to focus on this USO. Within a few minutes, the USO slowly sank out of sight.

Unknown if any other event happens that night. Unknown why this is would be my fourth night (in two months) seeing and reporting events. But it has to be reported.

NOTE: fairly detailed account...even by MUFON CMS standards. I wish there was more video documentation as well as other witness statements. If anyone has further information, I'd be interested in seeing it. USO (Unidentified Submerged Objects) are not a new phenomenon but are really just starting to gain public attention...Lon

"In the time that separated the three frames, Dione moved, so if I did a simple color composite I would be able to make Titan look right, but not Dione; or Dione look right, but not Titan.

"So I aligned Dione, cut it out, and then aligned Titan, and then had to account for the missing bits of shadow where the bits of Dione had been in two of the three channels."

She explained the process further at Planetary.org but it still wasn't enough for the alien hunters, particularly DominatorPS3.

"Thanks for the feedback and explanation," he said in a comment on the YouTube post.

"However I still remain sceptical because someone still could have ordered her to 'cut it or something out'.

"But thanks for putting that info up so others can read it; I am not trying to convince people what I believe."

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Earth Crack Still a Mystery in Michigan

ehextra - One day the land was flat and filled with trees shooting straight into the air. Twenty-four hours later there's a 600-foot-long crack, 4-feet deep twisting its way through the woods - and those vertical trees are now pointed 30 degrees left and right where the earth has mounded 15 feet high. No, it's not a disaster movie; it's what happened Monday at the home of Eileen Heider on Bay de Noc Road in Birch Creek.

Heider was sitting in her recliner watching TV at about 8:30 that morning. "The chair shook for a few seconds and I thought the spring in the chair went," she said. Heider heard a noise at the same time. She checked her chair and around the house inside and out but couldn't find anything unusual.

Heider wasn't alone. A neighbor across the road told her she heard a boom while taking a shower and that her husband was leaning against the washing machine and said he felt it move, even though it wasn't running. Another neighbor said he heard a boom and closed his window thinking it was thunder but then noticed the sky was clear.

The next day Heider's friend, Doug Salewski, found a hole in the ground and a 200-yard crevasse a short ways away which wasn't there before. Heider went to investigate and said the crack was three-feet wide and about five-feet deep in spots.

"The trees on one side are kind of tilted and on the other side are tilted the opposite way," she said. The hole found by her friend was dry so she didn't think it was caused by rain, even though some members of her family did. "My kids and different ones that came over said maybe it was because of so much rain and there was a buildup of pressure underneath."

Heider call authorities and Michigan State Trooper Paul Anderson from the Stephenson Post came out to take a look.

"There's no gas line or anything, I have no answers to it," he said. "It heaved the ground 10 to 15 feet. I mean the ground used to be flat and now it's just heaved, it heaved the entire ground." Anderson said he'd follow up with phone calls to geologists at Michigan Tech.

EagleHerald photographer Rick Gebhard shared the photo you see in today's paper with several government agencies hoping to get a handle on what caused the earth to open up.

Steven Fleegel from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration took a crack solving the mystery. "Unfortunately, that is out of our area of expertise," he said. He recommended contacting the Department of Natural Resources or the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Menominee County Emergency Management Director Debra Wormwood was in Lansing, Mich., for a conference but was able to see the photo and share it with the State Police District Emergency Management Coordinator and a representative from the National Weather Service.

"It appears that what they had in the yard on Rangeline is a sinkhole and that is made by the amount of rain that we got recently," said Wormwood.

Officials also checked the USGS website and did not find any seismic activity in or near Michigan and said that if it was an earthquake more people would have felt it.

We have received and will show in this article astonishing documents leaked out of CERN internal servers, about the CASTOR project, a Centauro and STrangelet Object Research to hunt for strangelets ‘likely‘ to be produced at the LHC.

According to those internal documents CERN has been lying for years to the press and in the suits, since it always affirmed that it won’t produce the ultra-dangerous, ultradense ‘strangelets’, the liquid explosive made of up, down and strange quarks, responsible of the ice-9 reactions that cause supernovas.

In those documents CERN affirms there is a 65-70% of chances of producing negative strangelets, which according to standard science on strangelets today, will provoke the ice-9 reaction (name taken from Cat and Cradle’s book in which a physicist destroys the world throwing a new type of water that freezes the planet, since an ice-9 reaction will condensate the planet in a 15 kilometers ultra-dense strange star).

Thus CERN has been lying and it is playing with all mankind a Quantum Russian Roulette game with 4 shots out of 6, 66% chances of extinction. This will be even if we survive the biggest genocide of history, calculated multiplying probability and victims: 66% x 6.6 billions=4.4 billions, 1000 times the Holocaust. The experiment will start in 45 days now. We might be living the last month of our existence as individuals and as a species. This Fall can be indeed the Fall of Man. And yet, the experiment is not stopped. This machine is too big to fail. (Continue reading at 1st extinction event: Leaked CERN documents state LHC has 70% chances to produce strangelets on 11/9)

Thanks to Mel for the heads up!

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Malaysian Baby Snatched / Killed by Macaque Monkey

BBC - A Malaysian baby girl has died after being snatched by a monkey which bit her then dropped her from a roof. The four-day-old was sleeping in the living room of her home in the central Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan when a macaque monkey entered. The baby had been briefly left alone. Wildlife officials said the monkey had probably been searching for food.

The officials said it was the first case of an attack by wild monkeys on a human in the state. The child's mother, 26-year-old V Revathy, said she had left her baby to go to the bathroom and the baby's grandfather had gone to get a glass of water. "We frantically searched all over the house and saw her body covered in blood lying outside the house," the child's grandfather A Valayutham said.

The baby had serious bite and scratch marks on her ears, neck and head. The newborn, who had not been named yet, died on her way to hospital. "She was our bundle of joy and we were looking forward to spending many happy years with her ... I just cannot believe she's gone," said V Neru, the baby's father. State wildlife officials said they had shot the monkey they believed was responsible for the attack.

Assistant wildlife official Mohd Zafifi Ramli said that macaque monkeys were breeding too fast in Malaysia. With the country rapidly developing, he said, there was less forest for wild animals to live in. Mr Zafifi said the monkeys were also attracted to urban areas because many people fed them.

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Zimbabwean Female 'Rape Gangs' Reported

news.com.au - A Zimbabwean man has accused a gang of three women of kidnapping, drugging and raping him in the fifth sexual attack targeting male victims in under a year. A police spokesman said the 26-year-old was offered a lift in the southern city of Bulawayo but passed out in the vehicle after he was grabbed from behind and his face covered with a cloth. He said he fell unconscious again after being given a substance that tasted like alcohol.

"After he woke up he was naked and the ladies took turns to rape him and abused him," police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said. The man told police he passed out after the assault but was later dumped by the women. "The ladies also took his money, $US300 and cell phone," said Mr Bvudzijena. "The intentions by the three women are not clear but we suspect it could for ritual purposes."

The incident on Friday was the fifth such attack reported in several parts of the country, carried out by groups of women of varying size. "It could be one or more gangs involved which is doing this. In all cases the victims are caught unaware and they are given drugs which make them dizzy," said Mr Bvudzijena. The first attack happened last November when three women kidnapped an 18-year-old man.

In February, a group of four women forced a 25-year-old to have sex with them at gunpoint. Last month, a 44-year-old man, who was ordered to wear a condom, was targeted by two women while a man stood guard. A 30-year-old man was also drugged by three women, two of whom had guns, and sexually assaulted. Under Zimbabwean law, the charge of rape applies only to women victims.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Some mythical creatures have their origin in tradition and tales from the distant past. However, each culture is associated with a multitude of interesting and odd creatures, many of these beings are humanoids. One of these legendary humanoids is the Rakshasa.

The Rakshasa are a race of humanoid beings in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. They are seen as a type of goblin or evil spirit. They are not equal in evil traits, but have been classified into four subraces:

Ak'chazar - These rakshasa have the heads of white tigers and are skinnier than common breed. They are unusually powerful spellcasters and specialize in necromantic magic. To use their necromantic powers to their full potential the Ak'chazar often use graveyards or old battlefields as their headquarters. When working on one of their dark schemes they often let their undead do the physical work while they stay behind the scenes themselves.

Naityan - These are shapeshifters with the ability to utilize different supernatural combat styles based on their current forms.

Naztharune - Naztharune have the heads of black tigers and are covered in black fur. They have few magical powers but compensate by being strong fighters, specializing in assassination. They lack most Rakshasa's need to be the leader of any organisation that they are part of, often working for other Rakshasa.

Zakyas - Zakyas resemble standard rakshasas, but rather than focusing on sorcery, they are skilled melee combatants and weapon masters. They use their weak magical powers to supplement their martial prowess.

The great ten-headed demon Ravana, enemy of Lord Ram, was a Rakshasa king

According to the legend, Rakshasas emerged from Brahma's foot. The Vishnu Purana also makes them descendants of Kasyapa and Khasa, a daughter of Daksha, through their son Rakshas; and the Ramayana states that when Brahma created the waters, he formed certain beings to guard them who were called Rakshasas. It is thought that the Rakshasas of the epic poems were the rude barbarian races of India who were subdued by the Aryans.

The Rakshasas are described in the Ramayana: "the Rakshasas sleeping in the houses were of every shape and form. Some of them disgusted the eye, while some were beautiful to look upon. Some had long arms and frightful shapes; some were very fat and some were very lean; some were mere dwarfs and some were prodigiously tall. Some had only one eye and others only one ear. Some had monstrous bellies, hanging breasts, long projecting teeth, and crooked thighs; whilst others were exceedingly beautiful to behold and clothed in great splendour. Some had two legs, some three legs, and some four legs. Some had the heads of serpents, some the heads of donkeys, some the heads of horses, and some the heads of elephants."

Many traditional Hindus believe these creature are indeed real and that it feeds on human flesh. They are shape changers and magicians, and often appear in the forms of humans, dogs, and large birds. They can make themselves invisible and can not enter a home without being invited. In the popular lore, Rakshasas are demons and fiends who haunt cemeteries, disturb sacrifices, harass priests, possess and devour human beings, and vex and afflict mankind in all sorts of ways. They are said to drink blood and preferred to attack infants and pregnant women.

They usually disturbed the sacrifices, and tortured the priests. Rakshasas are known to carry away beautiful women to whom they were attracted. The Rakshasas, male or female, were ugly in appearance, but they could assume any form they pleased with the powers they possessed. Occasionally they would serve as rank-and-file soldiers in the service of a warlord. There are epic tales of certain members of the race who rose to prominence, some of them as heroes, most of them as villains.

Most weapons don't work against these creatures. But all Rakshasas have a common weakness; that any crossbow blessed by a priest will kill them instantly. In addition there is said that a dagger of pure brass has the ability to slay it.

There are several modern depictions of Rakshasas including role playing games, comic book series and video games. For more detail references go to - Rakshasas in the Mahabharata

MUFON CMS - Argentina - 3/23/10 - (unedited): A photo captures an object hovering silently in my city and infrared ranges. The image was taken in the morning from the back of my house in March and there was no plane in the sky or hear any noise. The object appeared in the picture when the download to your computer. I send you a piece of the original photo, and another with some processing I hope you can process the best and can help me identify this strange object. I was testing my new camera ( Samsung SL-502 ). Thanks

MUFON CMS - Angel Fire, NM - 8/19/2010 - (unedited): Two messages, one at 5:12 pm and one at 5:13 pm, were left on my answering machine Thursday (I think the date was August 19). After listening to them many times, I believe they are two different messages, left by two different "voices."

I'm submitting this report and a digital audio recording of the messages because I believe they are connected to UFO sightings I have been experiencing in Angel Fire, New Mexico. A couple of years ago, I recall hearing similar sounds on an Internet site (sorry, don't remember when or which site) which described them as being made by extraterrestrials.

The audio recording was made by holding a digital recorder near the answering machine on which the messages were made. I consider the recording to be about 98%-99%% as clear as the original messages (which I have retained on my digital answering machine).

My Caller ID recorded the phone number, which is not included in this narrative (but which will be given to official investigator). If the reverse-number service I accessed on the Internet is correct, the phone calls were made from a land line in southern California.

Instead of just copying and pasting what I wrote before I'm going to try to remember again from my memory best I can.

1. Where were you and what were you doing at the time? I was with my girl friend in my Ford Expedition. We were leaving our house in Lake Las Vegas traveling southwest on Lake Mead Drive about a mile from the entrance of Lake Las Vegas. I was traveling about 50 mph at the time. We were going to eat at Fiesta Casino in Henderson. Immediately after the incident occurred i looked at the clock in the car and on my blackberry. Both said 8:03 pm.

2. What made you first notice the object? I was looking at my girl friend who was sitting in the passenger side and I started to notice the ambient light above the car go from darker shadows to lighter shadows fairly quickly while we were driving, I remember thinking to myself what the hell are those shadows. As soon as I thought that in my head, I started seeing these bright neon green orbs flying around the inside of the car.

4. Describe the object and its actions and motions. The best way I can describe those lights was that they seemed like the size of tennis balls or ping pong balls, its hard to tell because it was like a light source but they seemed to be flying around in the car. I was looking at my girlfriend in the passenger seat so I could see the rear of the car with my peripheral and it looked like the lights were dancing around in the back too. I specifically remember the lights passing over the tops of my thighs and the center console of the expedition. It almost felt like it was scanning the car. The green lights moved quickly, so fast they left those lit up optical traces you see when a light moves fast in the dark. The color of the lights was a deep green type of light. Almost like the green light of a stop light but much a much richer and deep green. This whole incident maybe lasted 2 seconds. I honestly can't say if I remember seeing the lights on the outside of the car. Because the lights were moving so fast and were inside the car my head was concentrated at looking inside I forgot to notice if the lights were outside. My girlfriend says she saw the lights from outside but she's not too sure. Her perspective of it was she was looking through the side view mirror and she said she could see the lights dancing all around the inside of the car. A part of me wants to say I saw some lights in a light purplish color but this may have been an optical illusion at the way the lights were flying around. But me and my girlfriend both agree that we did see deep green lights. The lights were bright, like I was staring into a neon sign but it didn't seem to bathe the car in that green light. I mean the car was lit up but it didn't seem to paint the inside of the car a specific color but it was hard to tell. As soon as the lights came they just all shut off and it was gone. The reminds me, the way the lights first happened it wasn't like just 1 or 2 and slowly more. It was right away a lot of lights and very fast movement, then gone, it was back to darkness. After the incident I slowed down hard on the breaks and yelled "what the hell was that". I immediate looked over head but saw nothing.

5. Describe your feelings, reactions and actions, during and after sighting the object. When the lights first turned on in the car I immediate thought it was a toy or some kind of electronic had turned on in the back of the expedition. But when I started to notice the lights shining and dancing around I knew it wasn't a toy and I got goose bumps all over my body. I slowed down and went to the next place where I could make a U-turn and wanted to turn around to see what it was. My girlfriend said she was scared and freaked out and just wanted to get out of there. We went to Fiesta Henderson and ate and saw nothing else.

A unique phenomena happened over the sky of Jakarta last night. Several red, green and yellow lights were visible over the clear sky of Jakarta. This incident invited the attention of the citizens.

According to one of the readers at detik.com, Erwan Sudiwijaya, those multi colored lights were visible over city part Bendungan Hilir (Benhil), Central Jakarta. "red, green and yellow lights in a "C" formation were clearly visible in the sky. This event happened for 15 minutes and the lights were easily seen for 5 minutes before slowly fading away, at around 20:10 pm . It caused several people on foot to stop and watch it. other people nearby ran into their houses to take cameras.

On the same note, another reader - Barry claimed to have seen lights forming a bow and close to it one bright shining, blinking, light. However, Barry's claim came without any image as proof.

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abcnews - A Chinese airport was shut down for more than an hour last month because air traffic controllers saw what they believed to be a UFO buzzing the airport, according to reports out of the country.

It is the eighth time since June that UFOs have been reported in China.

In the latest episode, several passenger jets were diverted from the airport at Baotou in Inner Mongolia for about an hour arond 8 p.m. on Sept. 11.

The alert was triggered by bright lights in the sky that moved erratically, but reports claim that air traffic controllers at the Hohhot Air Traffic Management Bureau spotted the object on their radar.

After about an hour, the object and the lights suddenly vanished and passenger jets were allowed to land.

The Chinese government had said on previous occasions that the lights claimed to be UFOs were military exercises, but the government denied the Sept. 11 incident happened at all.

This summer another UFO report caused a sensation and forced Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou, to cease operations on July 7.

A flight crew preparing for descent first detected the object around 8:40 p.m. and notified the air traffic control department. Aviation authorities responded within minutes, grounding outbound flights and diverting inbound ones to airports in Ningbo and Wuxi.

Eighteen flights were affected. Though normal operations resumed an hour later, the incident captured the attention of the Chinese media and sparked a firestorm of speculation on the UFO's identity.

Hangzhou residents released photos, taken in the afternoon before the delays, of a hovering object bathed in golden light and exhibiting a comet-like tail. Less than an hour before the Xiaoshan airport shut down, residents said they also saw a flying object emitting red and white rays of light.

AOLNews - All those UFOs that have been spotted around China this year, closing down airports and causing general flying saucer mayhem and wonder, are on the increase. And "great events" will soon follow, an astronomer says.

"First, I'd like to say something about the conception of 'great events about UFOs,'" Wang Sichao, a planetary astronomer at Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Beijing Review.

Wang Sichao, a planetary astronomer at Purple Mountain Observatory in China, predicts UFO sightings in China will continue to increase.
"It does not mean large numbers of UFOs but refers to events of credible facts backed by observation. But these facts cannot yet be explained by existing scientific knowledge or natural phenomena," he told the English-language weekly.

Those are strong pro-UFO words from a scientist who, in September, dismissed UFO sightings over Hong Kong as "ghost images" -- reflections of outdoor lamps caught by camera lenses.

Wang has investigated UFO sightings in China for nearly 40 years and described the many types of unidentified objects that have been seen: "bolide, light spot, spiral, fan, bright star, flying rod, ball lightning and V-shaped."

The astronomer has a theory as to why, over so many decades, there hasn't been much progress in available UFO information -- presuming some UFOs are a type of extraordinary vehicle.

"The reason is that a UFO only appears randomly and often disappears rapidly in a few minutes. By the time large professional telescopes are started up, it has already disappeared. So, we can only rely on information from occasional sightings or encounters by observers," he said.

"Astronomers all over the world are now intensifying their efforts to explore extraterrestrial life. As long as we have open minds about scientific exploration of the unknown and employ multiple methods, the contact between humans and extraterrestrial life will, hopefully, come this century."

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Honey Bee Colony Collapse Mystery Possibly Solved

It has been one of the great murder mysteries of the garden: what is killing off the honeybees?

Since 2006, 20 to 40 percent of the bee colonies in the United States alone have suffered “colony collapse.” Suspected culprits ranged from pesticides to genetically modified food.

Now, a unique partnership — of military scientists and entomologists — appears to have achieved a major breakthrough: identifying a new suspect, or two.

A fungus tag-teaming with a virus have apparently interacted to cause the problem, according to a paper by Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana in the online science journal PLoS One. Continue reading at NYTimes

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Seance Plans Deep-Sixed by Religious Leaders and Residents

winnipegfreepress - Plans for a Halloween seance at a Saskatchewan museum have been sent to the grave following complaints from religious leaders and residents.

Officials at the provincially run Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw had organized a Halloween "ghost walk" to help raise funds to repair a train that takes children around the building. The event was to include a presentation on talking with the dead as well as a demonstration.

Many in the city were spooked by the idea.

"The manager at the museum started receiving phone calls and emails and personal visits from individuals who were objecting to the seance pretty much by and large on religious grounds," said David Klatt, the museum agency's executive director.

"One of the specific comments that was made, which I guess would give you an example of what we were hearing, is that we would be inviting evil through the doors if we were to conduct the seance."

Even the local legislature member, Warren Michelson, ended up fielding concerns.

The museum gave in to the pressure and cancelled the event, but only after a lot of deliberation.

"The board really struggled with it ... because there are matters of principle here," Klatt said. "Does the museum have the right to put on a broad spectrum of programming? Are we going to limit our programming because of the concerns of a special interest group?"

The other problem was that it's too late to put together a different fundraiser before Halloween.The museum's board had hoped to raise $1,000 toward the train-repair bill. The money will be raised eventually, Klatt said, and the train should be back on track by next summer.

The Western Development Museum was established by the Saskatchewan government in 1949 to preserve farm machinery and other aspects of the province's history. Board members are appointed by the province to oversee four facilities in Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Yorkton and North Battleford.

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Priest Fears Masonic 'Witchcraft'

times-age - A Christian minister in Carterton is objecting to a Masonic Lodge being used for a temporary library because he considers it connected to witchcraft.

John Cromarty and his wife Marilyn, of St David's Church, are handing in their library cards and are asking all their friends not to visit the lodge, which is housing the town's books while the $6 million events centre is built.

In a letter to Carterton Mayor Gary McPhee, which was distributed at yesterday's Carterton council meeting, Mr Cromarty warns that any decision to enter the premises is "not wise".

"Freemasonry, while it does good works in the community, is based upon the worship of pagan gods," Mr Cromarty wrote.

"While it portrays a facade as being compatible to Christianity in its teaching, it has its foundation rooted in witchcraft and pre-Christian teachings and practice."

Mr Cromarty suggested alternatives, such as an empty building on High St, Carterton, or the Wai Art Centre.

The couple are leaving at the end of the year but have taken the decision to hand their library cards in now to make a stand.

Called by the Times-Age, Mr Cromarty said he had "no comment" but objected to his letter being published, believing it to be private correspondence.

Mr McPhee said the letter showed a few people in the community were "stuck in the wrong century".

"We are now in the 21st century but clearly some people didn't move along with us," he said.

Warwick Cashmore, a past master and a Freemason of the lodge, said he was saddened by Mr Cromarty's comments.

"I'm extremely disappointed he's taken this attitude.

"The basic tenants of freemasonry are brotherly love, relief, and truth."

He said freemasons, like Christians, believed in a god and, perhaps most importantly, had shared connections to paganism.

"He should examine his own religion and see there are some very big connections to paganism there.

He believed the comments to be further evidence there were grave misunderstandings about freemasonry in the community after a recent court case in Wellington debating whether the society is a charity or not.

Carterton's Masonic Lodge has 52 members.

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Protein Cocktail is 'Elixir of Life'

BBC - A cocktail of amino acids - the building blocks of proteins - is the latest contender in the age-old search for the elixir of life.

Scientists gave mice drinking water laced with three amino acids. They said the rodents lived significantly longer than other mice fed a normal diet.

The research, reported in a scientific journal, has yet to be tried in people.

The study leader said a large patient trial was needed to provide evidence to convince doctors.

In experiments, middle-aged healthy male mice were given drinking water containing the amino acids leucine, isoleucine and valine.

Dr Enzo Nisoli, of the University of Milan, and colleagues, said it increased the average lifespan of the mice by 12% and boosted their fitness and co-ordination.

They wrote in their paper, published in Cell Metabolism: "Our study offers a rationale for deeply exploring the role of amino acids in prevention and control of age-related disorders in humans."

The amino acids - three of the 20 that make up proteins - have been shown to extend life span in yeast. However, the precise role of these amino acids in humans is unknown.

They are used by bodybuilders to maintain muscle tissue and can be bought in health food stores and online.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

azcentral - Somewhere out there, there's a modern Western explorer who decided he had something so important to say that it had to be slathered in silver paint on a remote rock wall full of ancient petroglyphs in the national forest.

The mysterious etchings depicting people, animals and a blazing sun are in a box canyon known as Keyhole Sink in the Kaibab National Forest east of Williams, a mountain town off Interstate 40 that has welcomed sojourners since its namesake, fur trapper "Old Bill" Williams, explored the locale in the early to mid-1800s.

The pristine rock art in Keyhole Sink was a silent reminder of the ancient culture that long flourished in northern Arizona, and it stood unaltered for at least 1,000 years. That all changed in August, when someone painted "ACE" on top of the petroglyphs in sloppy, dripping letters. Under the defacement is an indistinguishable glop of paint that could be more lettering.

Kaibab officials aren't sure exactly what it says, nor what it means, other than a potentially expensive restoration job that might not work. Investigators are trying to find the culprits but have no suspects.

"It's beyond words," Kaibab archaeologist Neil Weintraub said of the damage. "It feels like an attack on this site. What has it done except give people pleasure for years?"

The damage at Keyhole Sink is a fresh reminder of the ongoing assault on ancient archaeological sites in Arizona and across the Southwest - graffiti, looting of artifacts, littering and garbage-dumping. Sites are defaced with paint, bullet marks, paintball stains and messages scratched into rocks. Professional thieves remove pottery, hack out chunks of ancient art-covered rock and dislodge anything they can carry away.

The sites are vulnerable because they're not behind locked doors. They are operated on the assumption that visitors will behave, since monitoring is intermittent at many of these locations. There aren't enough people, either paid or volunteer, to check them frequently. There are simply too many sites. Often, they're hard to reach.

"We can't monitor them all, and neither can the land managers," said Nicole Armstrong-Best, interim coordinator for Arizona's Site Stewards program. The program oversees a group of volunteers who monitor local, state and federal sites all over the state.

There are about 800 volunteer stewards who monitor the 3,000 most significant or most affected sites the program tracks. Armstrong-Best said there are thousands of other sites - both known and undiscovered - not being watched.

More than 130 vandalism reports have been filed by the stewards since October 2009, when a computerized reporting system was put in place. Reported incidents include petroglyph thefts, paint damage, graffiti and dumping of debris. In a few cases, even shrines and cairns have been built on the sites, along with other alterations.

Looters and vandals can be prosecuted under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. But experts say the cases can be difficult to prosecute unless there are witnesses. Still, there have been enforcement actions in Arizona and neighboring states recently.

Perhaps the best known is a federal sting that targeted looters in the Four Corners area of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. More than 25 people were arrested in the case.

In other examples of prosecution, a Bullhead City man was hit with several citations after a paintball fight damaged petroglyphs in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and the federal Bureau of Land Management is investigating a case near Tucson in which people were spotted spray-painting a series of rock-art panels.

Archaeology buffs like Robert Schroeder of Phoenix wonder if it's a good idea to have the sites listed so publicly.

"I don't see any easy solution," said Schroeder, who photographs petroglyphs, including some that have been damaged. "You want Americans to have access to the country's cultural resources, but you want to keep sensitive sites off the radar, so to speak."

Mike Johnson, deputy preservation officer for the BLM's Arizona office in Phoenix, said urban growth in the West means more people looking to crowd into diminishing open space, putting more pressure on archaeological sites. At the same time, he said technology like GPS helps people find sites, and Internet marketplaces permit thieves to easily market what they've stolen.

Johnson said the BLM is working to increase steward visits and patrols by uniformed officers at sensitive sites, and to increased cooperation with Native American tribes, for whom these sites are sacred reminders of their ancestors.

Experts say that the impulse to restrict access is giving way to the idea that educating visitors about the value of the sites will make them more apt to notice and report criminal shenanigans.

"You give people who are professional looters more reason for concern, more eyes and ears out there," said Andy Laurenzi of Tucson's Center for Desert Archaeology.

Kaibab officials were proactive in trying to protect Keyhole Sink. Two forest roads leading to the small canyon were closed, and now the rights of way are carpeted with forest growth. Without easy access, garbage and litter almost disappeared.

To keep the site accessible, forest managers created a ¾-mile walking trail to Keyhole Sink. They figured that anyone willing to make the effort to get there on foot would value what they were seeing.

Kaibab officials erected signs warning against vandalism and explaining the significance of the site. Now, Weintraub said, the agency may have to consider installing cameras and motion detectors to protect the site, though that runs counter to his notion that the place is a touchstone to the past.

Until the paint is removed, he said, people who come there from around the world will be disappointed.

"We've lost the value of people being able to come there, see the stuff, sometimes sit there alone and imagine how it was for the ancient people who lived there," he said.

Margaret Hangan, Kaibab National Forest's heritage-program manager, said she was unsure if anyone would be caught for the vandalism. Kaibab officials are still trying to figure out the best way to remove the paint without leaving more damage. Officials hope publicity helps educate people and generates some tips on who did it.

"It hurts us emotionally, because this is just such a special place," Hangan said recently, standing near a pool at the base of a cliff where a waterfall cascades during the snowmelt season. "It's really hard to see that not everybody feels the same way we do about it."

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Michigan Mom Accused of Faking Son's Cancer

AP - An unemployed Detroit-area mother accused of drugging and shaving her healthy 12-year-old son so he appeared to have cancer, then accepting thousands of dollars in donations for his treatment, was arraigned Friday on charges of fraud and child abuse.

A Roseville district court judge ordered Carol Lynn Schnuphase, 47, of Warren, held on $100,000 bond.

"A mother, no less, goes so far as to shave the head every other week, shave the eyebrows, and maybe the worst thing of all, to crushing up drugs to put in his applesauce to make him appear lethargic," said Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith.

A hospital has tested the boy and declared him cancer-free, although he was going through opiate withdrawal, Smith said. Authorities haven't yet determined what drugs were in the boy's system and are awaiting hospital test results.

Court records indicate Schnuphase told her son he had leukemia.

Authorities say Schnuphase elicited donations from individuals, groups and members of at least one church who believed they were helping to pay for her son's medical care as he underwent chemotherapy.

Smith said she received $7,500 from a church fundraiser, in addition to other donations, and that her son was given gifts including an Xbox video game system.

"People, out of the goodness of their hearts, seeing what they think this poor child is going through have given cash, given an Xbox, given presents trying to lift his spirits," Smith said. "This poor child, thinking all along that he is dying of cancer. It never ends; the shock."

The charade appears to have started in December, and eventually Schnuphase's family members and relatives of her deceased husband reported her to police.

After authorities removed the boy from her home earlier this summer, Schnuphase told past donors her son had died and that she needed money for his funeral and burial, Smith said.

"We see greedy people all the time and people scamming for money all the time, but we never see it to this level," he added.

"It appears as though the money is for the same thing all of us spend our money on: car payments, food, housing," Smith said. "There appear to be no gambling debts or anything else. This appears to be just a mindless greedy action."

Schnuphase was arrested Thursday after visiting the boy, who is in foster care, defense lawyer Dominic Greco said.

"They grabbed her after they had made arrangements with her to turn herself in today," he said.

Greco told the judge she was standing mute to the charges. A preliminary hearing was set for Oct. 13. Greco said he thinks that bond was set too high.

"She doesn't have any money. All the money in her account, she was saving up for bond," he said.

Schnuphase faces two counts of fraud over $1,000, which carry sentences of up to five years. She also is charged with one count of second-degree child abuse, a felony with a sentence of up to four years.

Roseville's Deputy Police Chief James Berlin said during the scheme Schnuphase was living in her suburban Detroit home, which was in foreclosure.

Angry relatives viewed the arraignment in the small courtroom and expressed disbelief and anger toward Schnuphase afterward.

"I have never heard of such a thing where a mother would do this. I don't know what caused it," said her aunt, Lorraine Kelsch.

Former sister-in-law Elizabeth Carmack called the actions "sick and disgusting."

"I hope that she rots in jail," Carmack told reporters.

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Chinese Blackouts For The Sake of Energy Efficiency

weirdasianews - Since 2009, China has surpassed the US as the world’s biggest consumer of energy and the main emitter of green house gasses, according to the International Energy Agency.

China’s current five-year plan, which had been focused on improving the energy efficiency of the economy by 20%, is quickly drawing to a close.

Initially, the outlook was hopeful as until last year, the country measured a 14.4% gain.

By measuring energy use via relative Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, the target percentage was established as the very least level China could contribute towards battling greenhouse emissions.

But this year, especially in the first three months of 2010, huge expenditures involving energy-intensive steel and cement infrastructure projects propelled the economy upward, but at the cost of having to burn more coal for yuan of productivity.

Over the summer, the two most industrially active provinces, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, began to irregularly cut the power supplies to factories. And they are not alone, as other regions have also adopted similar measures on local levels.

In Hebei Province, Anping County has adopted radical measures to achieve China’s intense effort to improve the environment and shift away from the waste of energy so long in effect. For 22 hours every three days, authorities cut electricity to homes, factories and public buildings.

The problem was that these indiscriminate cuts impacted industrial sectors and poor rural communities alike.

“We don’t have many electrical appliances in our home so it didn’t affect me that much. We just had to hang around because we couldn’t watch TV as usual,” said Mr. Liu, a farmer in the village of Liukou.

Media attention brought a public apology and return to normal energy use for residents.

A new, more scientific approach is definitely needed and is in the works.

NOTE: seems to me that China is falling into the same syndrome that plagued the Japanese basically, producing low-cost exports to fund investment at home while pissing off trading partners. Japan's export boom funded remarkable growth for four decades...but it's undervalued currency eventually helped blow up one of the largest economic bubbles in history. I see China going the same route but at a much faster pace. Compound that with the energy costs and environmental problems, China has major economic and social issues in the near future...Lon

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Filipinos Face Fine / Prison For Singing National Anthem Incorrectly

BBC - The Philippine House of Representatives has approved a bill criminalising the improper singing of the country's national anthem.

If the Senate passes the bill into law, performers who deviate from the official version could face a fine of more than $2,000 (£1,264).

The new bill, which is very precise, says offenders could face up to two years in jail.

It also outlines penalties for improper use or displaying of the national flag.

When one of the Philippines' most famous pop stars Charice Pempengco sings her country's national anthem, her rendition is deemed acceptable by the National Historical Institute.

But not all versions are so favourably received.

Other performers have been criticised for singing the anthem too slowly or with the wrong beat, or adding their own personal touches.

This new bill is very precise: the anthem should be sung to a marching tempo, within the range of 100 to 120 beats per minute.

When it is played at public gatherings and in cinemas, all citizens should stand to attention and sing with fervour, as a sign of respect.

The bill also tightens up the rules on the use of the national flag - but it is the anthem that has the biggest impact.

This is a country where people love to sing. Now - if people want to sing their national song, they need to make sure they do it properly.
NOTE: did you ever get the same thoughts when performers butcher the Star-Spangled Banner with all the embellishments?

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ET Contact Gameplan

MSNBC Science Editor Alan Boyle writes the following: Experts have hammered out a simplified game plan to follow in the event that signals from an extraterrestrial civilization are ever detected.

The new guidelines for dealing with theoretical radio transmissions from E.T. were adopted unanimously by the International Academy of Astronautics' SETI Permanent Study group last week during a meeting in Prague, the Czech capital.

The timing is weirdly coincidental, in that the long-scheduled meeting came amid an international buzz over the United Nations' role in responding to a hypothetical E.T. call. Malaysian astronomer Mazlan Othman, head of the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs, said the world body was "a ready-made mechanism for such coordination," and quite a few news outlets suggested that Othman herself might be named the point person for dealing with extraterrestrial communications.

Othman eventually said she wasn't aiming to become an ambassador to the aliens. But the newly approved protocol does say the U.N. secretary-general would be among the first people officially notified if alien contact is confirmed. I'm stressing the word "officially" because the protocol also says scientists shouldn't try to hush up any detection of signals they think might be coming from E.T. Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon may well find out about alien detection from a Twitter tweet rather than an official phone call.

The earlier version of the protocols was a lot wordier, and called for notifying 10 separate organizations about "credible evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence." The revised protocols also make a point of saying that scientists should deal honestly with the news media in the event of a signal detection ... which of course I'm glad to hear.

Conspiracy theorists might say the one-world government "don't need no stinking protocols," to paraphrase a classic movie scene. And it's true that the protocols are not legally binding. But the SETI League found it comforting that the experts declared their commitment to openness in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

"The advent of the Internet has changed the way the world does collaborative science," H. Paul Shuch, the grassroots group's executive director emeritus, said in a statement released over the weekend. "The revised IAA SETI Protocols better reflect this reality and provide a workable means for honoring both scientific integrity and the public's right to know."

Here's the text of the revised protocols, which are posted on the SETI League website:

Preamble

The parties to this declaration are individuals and institutions participating in the scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

The purpose of this document is to declare our commitment to conduct this search in a scientifically valid and transparent manner and to establish uniform procedures for the announcement of a confirmed SETI detection.

This commitment is made in recognition of the profound scientific, social, ethical, legal, philosophical and other implications of a SETI detection. As this enterprise enjoys wide public interest, but engenders uncertainty about how information collected during the search will be handled, the signatories have voluntarily constructed this declaration. It, together with a current list of signatory parties, will be placed on file with the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

Principles

1. Searching: SETI experiments will be conducted transparently, and its practitioners will be free to present reports on activities and results in public and professional fora. They will also be responsive to news organizations and other public communications media about their work.

2. Handling candidate evidence: In the event of a suspected detection of extraterrestrial intelligence, the discoverer will make all efforts to verify the detection, using the resources available to the discoverer and with the collaboration of other investigators, whether or not signatories to this Declaration. Such efforts will include, but not be limited to, observations at more than one facility and/or by more than one organization. There is no obligation to disclose verification efforts while they are underway, and there should be no premature disclosures pending verification. Inquiries from the media and news
organizations should be responded to promptly and honestly.

Information about candidate signals or other detections should be treated in the same way that any scientist would treat provisional laboratory results. The Rio Scale, or its equivalent, should be used as a guide to the import and significance of candidate discoveries for the benefit of non-specialist audiences.

3. Confirmed detections: If the verification process confirms â€“ by the consensus of the other investigators involved and to a degree of certainty judged by the discoverers to be credible â€“ that a signal or other evidence is due to extraterrestrial intelligence, the discoverer shall report this conclusion in a full and complete open manner to the public,
the scientific community, and the Secretary General of the United Nations. The confirmation report will include the basic data, the process and results of the verification efforts, any conclusions and intepretations, and any detected information content of the signal itself. A formal report will also be made to the International Astronomical Union
(IAU).

4. All data necessary for the confirmation of the detection should be made available to the international scientific community through publications, meetings, conferences, and other appropriate means.

5. The discovery should be monitored. Any data bearing on the evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence should be recorded and stored permanently to the greatest extent feasible and practicable, in a form that will make it available to observers and to the scientific community for further analysis and interpretation.

6. If the evidence of detection is in the form of electromagnetic signals, observers should seek international agreement to protect the appropriate frequencies by exercising the extraordinary procedures established within the World Administrative Radio Council of the International Telecommunication Union.

7. Post Detection: A Post-Detection Task Group under the auspices of the IAA SETI Permanent Study Group has been established to assist in matters that may arise in the event of a confirmed signal, and to support the scientific and public analysis by offering guidance, interpretation, and discussion of the wider implications of the detection.

8. Response to signals: In the case of the confirmed detection of a signal, signatories to this declaration will not respond without first seeking guidance and consent of a broadly representative international body, such as the United Nations.

Unanimously adopted by the SETI Permanent Study Group of the International Academy of Astronautics, at its annual meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, on 30 September 2010.

These revised and streamlined Protocols are intended to replace the previous document adopted by the International Academy of Astronautics in 1989.

Will these protocols ever be put into practice? Most of the scientists involved in SETI say 50 years of searching isn't long enough to judge whether our efforts to detect alien signals are on the right track or not. It may be that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations don't care enough about us monkeys to make contact, just as we don't spend a lot of time letting ants know what we're up to. It may be that intelligence is a volatile thing, and that civilizations self-destruct before they're around long enough to send signals to other star systems. Or it may be that aliens are just boring themselves to death.

Over at Discovery News, Ray Villard explores the issue of cosmic boredom. This is one of the issues raised a couple of months ago in a paper posted to the arXiv physics website by Igor Bezsudnov and Andrey Snarskii. They built computer models that gave "bonus life" to civilizations that contacted each other â€” and not surprisingly, civilizations too distant or dissimilar to achieve contact were more prone to die away.

It's just a simulation, but Villard takes away a couple of lessons from this. One implication would be that the cross-cultural effects of contact could be good for both sides. That argues against "the idea that extraterrestrials would devote an enormous amount of resources to physically travel here only to snoop around, be mischievous, yet avoid direct contact," he says.

The other implication is that there may be a "use it or lose it" quality to the quest for contact. "Extraterrestrials may wither away due to a loss of interest in the universe around them, or the atrophy of technological capability," he says. "Their brains might turn to mush as they become totally preoccupied with their versions of Facebook, World of Warcraft and reality TV shows."

Paranormal experiences run the gauntlet of categories - but nearly all of them are `paranormal’ because in one manner or another they don’t correspond with known laws of physics. And, IF the paranormal is not some self-projection of intentions, or, even if it is - does the fact that the experiences `defy physics as a explanation’ - offer us a possible clue as to what reality may ultimately BE.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

MUFON CMS - Ft. Wayne, Indiana - 9/30/2010 - (unedited): On the evening of September 30, 2010 I was at Snider High School, filming the marching band for a video project I am working on. I was also with my friend. It was around 7:11 pm and as I was filming, a few of the band members point at something in the sky in the distance above the school to the west. The sun was setting in that direction. It was a fairly bright stationary object. I got curious and decided to zoom in all the way on it. Let me also point out that I was using a Sony HandyCam DCR-SR42 camcorder with 40x optical zoom and 2000x digital zoom. It was an object with 2 lights and as I watched it the lights would flash green and red over and over. Since I was zoomed in all the way, the camera would shake with every tiny motion I took, so I decided to deploy the tripod I was using. As I was messing with they tripod, I tried to draw up an explanation to what the object was, but I drew a blank. After my friend and I fumbled with the tripod we lost sight of the object for just a few seconds until it finally reappeared in a different location in the sky. I zoomed in again and it was the same object. After about a good minute or so the object disappeared. About 2 minutes later we saw another object, but this one I did not video tape, this object was in motion and was flying around in a smooth pattern, staying in the same part of the sky, while that was going on, we witnessed another object appear, but this one was stationary. I turned on the camera and zoomed in. This time it was a single light that was flashing green and red. At this point we had thought that the first single object had split in to 2 separate objects. The object in motion disappear without us realizing it. So we kept watching the stationary object. That object then dimmed out and disappeared. After about 5 min we caught sight of yet again another object. Except this one was considerably larger or closer and lower on horizon. I zoomed in on it and right as I did it seemed to grow about twice it size and it glowed red. Then it dimmed down and started to move. As I was recording I managed to get some trees in the shot as a reference to track the motion of the object. It moved to the right slowly and as it did, it suddenly stopped. Then is started moving again, stopped, moved again, stopped once more and when it started moving it did some kind of loop. It continued to move at a constant speed and got dimmer and brighter as it moved. Until finally it disappeared behind the school building. At this point it was 7:30pm and the band's late night rehearsal was ending. The band members who saw it were very puzzled and excited at what they say and watched the videos I had taken. After practice I said goodbye to my girlfriend, and told my friend that was with me to keep his eyes peeled for anything else. At this point the sky was almost completely dark. I got in my car and started driving home, the commute to my house is only 3 minutes since I live in the neighborhood behind the school. With the objects still fresh in my mind I looked up in at the sky hoping to see something and to my amazement I did. I slowed down the car to make sure I was seeing things. It was an object with 3 lights in a triangle formation traveling southeast towards the school I just came from. It was traveling at a constant speed, and was not very high up, I could not physically see the object since the sky was dark, but as it flew over some stars, the stars disappeared behind the object. There were 2 lights in the front and the light in the back had a white strobe on it. I was about 7:56pm when I saw it. I thought that it might be an aircraft. I looked around and actually saw an usual concentration of air traffic to the west where the first objects were spotted 30 minutes previously. I knew that they we're aircraft because I am quite familiar with the light configuration on conventional aircraft since I am an aviation enthusiast. I can even identify different types of aircraft such as the make and model. I stopped my car in front of someones front yard and started filming. I got in a kneeling position to hold the camera steady and took two videos of the object. I watched it for about two minutes until it disappeared behind the tree line still traveling southeast. Freaked out at this point, I called my friend I was with while I drove the rest of the way home through my neighborhood. I told him what I just saw, then he told me that he was still at the school and that he saw a very bright white light in the sky in the same direction the craft was coming from. Then it disappeared. I finally got home, very spooked, and watched the videos I had just taken. All of these events took place from approximately 7pm to 8pm. In the same area between my house and Snider High School in the neighborhood of Glenwood Park. There were about 11 to 15 witness on the first objects. And only one or two for the triangular object. The photos attached are frames taken from the videos taken that evening. I am unable to upload the videos since they are to large. The next day I also learned of a sighting of 13 objects exactly like my first sighting in West Chicago, Illinois on the same day at the exact same time.

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MUFON CMS - Ireland - 10/4/2010 - (unedited): It was 1:05am on the 4th of October 2010 when I had my third close encounter of the second kind.

I was sitting down on the sofa/couch watching some cartoons, since there was no UFO documentaries on Discovery Science, etc.

The tv started freezing, so my first thought as a Ufologist, was "maybe theres a UFO out there" and then I started to notice really strange noises which changed for some reason. Ive seen several UFOs and this was the first non-silent one.

It sounded like a cross between a plane, a helicopter, a TIE Fighter from Star Wars, and buzz... and with the combined volume of all these, as it was much louder than either one.

Already on my way to the door, I unlocked it and walked out to see what appeared to be just a green glow with a white flashing light. I watched it hover in one direction until it suddenly turned and circled over my house. When it went over my roof, I went back through the house and out to my back garden, where I could see it up close - It was long, black, and either triangular or cigar shaped. with a green light on each side, a smaller dim red light on the back, and a flashing, larger white light in the middle.

I didn't expect it to, but it went around in circles above my house several times for about 25 minutes.

It appeared to be flying in a straight line until I walked out onto the middle of the road and started to record it... It was as if it knew I was watching...

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MUFON CMS - Angel Fire, New Mexico - 8/26/2010 - (unedited): I live about a mile north of the end of the airport runway in Angel Fire, NM. Angel Fire is in a valley at an elevation of 8,400 ft surrounded by mountains of roughly 10,000 ft to the east and 13,300 feet to the west.

Just before 9 pm on August 26 I heard and felt a window-rattling noise, which caused me to go outside to investigate. Once outside, I looked up and saw a large helicopter (with bright exterior lights and dim interior lights, noise, spinning rotors) traveling slowly in a northward direction a few hundred feet above Hwy 64. Immediately in front of the helicopter was an object approximately four times as long as the helicopter. The object was bullet-shaped on both ends and cylindrical between the bullet-shaped ends. The object had no lights, no wings, no markings or windows that I could see, and made no sound. It blocked out the stars behind it. I was able to discern its shape by the shape of the area of blocked-out stars and by the moonlight which illuminated its underside.

The night was clear, with no clouds and easily-distinguishable stars. The moon (just a couple of days past full) was rising over the mountains to the east at the time I saw the object.

It appeared to me that the object was being "escorted" by the helicopter behind it. Both the helicopter and the object moved at a steady, but slow, pace. The unknown object traveled steadily with no wobble or other movement. I watched the helicopter and the unknown object for about three minutes until they disappeared over the horizon. (The helicopter lights were visible for about three minutes Ð the object in front of the helicopter became unseeable after about a minute and a half.)

My feelings? Incredulity! Curiosity! Why was a large UFO flying so low and why was a large helicopter 'assisting' it?

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MUFON CMS - Daly City, California - March 2005 - (unedited): My boyfriend at the time and I were living in a friend's tiny fifth-wheel trailer on a hilltop in Daly City, California. It was directly in the flight path of San Francisco International Airport; we were watching "Cops" on TV, and Phil had passed out after dinner and a few beers. I remember watching this particular episode with a growing feeling of dread. A SWAT team was preparing to bust a major drug dealer, and I was suddenly overcome with a terrible premonition that I was watching a destiny that might well be ours if I didn't act to prevent it soon. I had no idea why, or what, or even when--so I did what I always do when I get scared and don't know what to do--I prayed, saying the Lord's prayer, pleading with Him to save us, to give us a reason to persevere, motivation to stay together and try to make things work. I remember practically begging Jesus to return for us.

I worked on the flightline for six years while in the Air Force, so I am quite familiar with the sounds planes make when they fly overhead, and the Doppler effect on sound as it moves. And that's why I found it a bit strange when an aircraft flew directly overhead--and stopped, hovering over the trailer, shaking the thing like a giant rattling maracas. It was very loud, and sounded very powerful, because even the loudest of airplanes didn't come close, and in any event nothing that powerful can hover This lasted for roughly ten minutes, then the sound and rattling faded. Minutes later, the exact same thing happened, and repeated twice more for a total of four times. A few months later, I learned that I was pregnant, and had conceived in that time frame.

Why is this incident remarkable? I wouldn't have even given it a second thought, except for Phil's history, and mine. His uncle was working on Roswell AFB the day that ship crashed, and what he saw he refused to tell anyone until a few years ago when hr did an interview for a UFO documentary that aired on the science channel in 2007. And when I was three, my dad took me to a clearing in the woods next to our home on Millstream Road in Woodstock, New York, in the spring or summer of 1971. I was terrified of the big gray "hippopotamus", but my dad wanted me to not be scared, to believe it would be ok.

Also, Phil was born in Roswell; his birth certificate states November 27th, 1964. He was in the army, and before we met for the first time in 2003, I believe we'd never met. Our paths, however, had crossed many times. And my son, in an ultrasound picture of his fou month fetus, he is sitting cross legged with wide eyes looking right into the camera, and i kid you not looks for all the world like one of the small, large-eyed aliens like we often see in sketches, as if he wants to know who's peering in at him.

**********

ntnews - The accidental photograph on today's front page of a UFO over a popular tourist destination occurred only hours before a bright light buzzed the crowd at the Katherine Show.

Victorian tourist Adam Rewuk did not realise he captured the image of the flying saucer over Katherine Gorge until he looked back over his photos after the trip.

"My Dad used to be a big UFO believer, so when I saw the picture, I thought of him," he said.

"I took the photo around lunch time, but I saw nothing in the sky. I didn't realise it was there until I saw the photo."

Mr Rewuk said the image was definitely not that of a plane or a mark on the lens of the camera.

"If I zoom in on the picture, it almost looks like a diamond shape with a bubble on the bottom," he said.

Mr Rewuk said the photo was taken only a few hours before a UFO was spotted at the nearby town show.

The NT News reported on July 17 that a bright light had travelled slowly across the sky about 6.20pm.

The UFO spooked hundreds of people at the showgrounds as the sun was starting to go down.

Mel Auty, from Camira, Queensland, said the UFO looked at first like a plane.

"But it was more like a falling star, just not falling. "And it wasn't dark enough for stars to be out.

"It was going across the sky for maybe five seconds, before it disappeared."

Vicki Mulholland, of Borroloola, said she was watching the last campdraft events at the show when something caught her eye.

"I looked up and something went across the sky," she said. "It kept going and going and suddenly it was gone just as if someone had switched if off."

NOTE: the Australian triangle image looks to be cut off at the top...leading to my thought that is may be a bird or something else that got into the frame...Lon

'CHICAGO PHANTOM' - FLYING HUMANOID SIGHTINGS

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